Return to Christmas Town by D.W. Saur

Author:D.W. Saur
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Polar Press LLC

20

Dinner

T.J. knocked on the hotel door. The chain lock rattled and the deadbolt clanked as it receded into the door. The knob didn’t turn, and Sydney didn’t make a sound.

It caused T.J. some concern so he asked, “Is everything okay?”

The door slowly opened. Sydney wore a red, form-fitting dress and T.J. felt his jaw drop.

Sydney pointed to T.J.’s mouth. “I hope that’s a good reaction.”

“Of course.” T.J. looked down at his blue collared shirt and tan khakis. “You look amazing, but I feel a bit underdressed.”

“Or I could be overdressed.” Sydney bit her lip and grinned.

“In a way, we balance each other out.”

“Well said. Shall we?”

T.J. led Sydney to the truck, and they took off, making their way out of the town.

“Where are you going? All the restaurants are back that way.” Sydney pointed to the back of the truck’s cabin.

“I told you that there are some things I want to tell you, and I found the perfect place to do so.”

“Will this be T.J. or Jonathan telling me?”

T.J. kept his eyes on the road but clenched his teeth. He nodded. Through clenched teeth, T.J. asked, “Who told you?”

“In a way, you did. You told me Fenton had an excellent town archive, so I visited it, looked at your yearbooks, and found you.”

T.J. started to laugh. “Very clever and very embarrassing.”

“Not to take away from moments that shouldn’t have been photographed, but why all the secrecy? Why didn’t you tell me your real name? Oh, perhaps most importantly, why did you sell your house?”

“I’m not sure if I’d call it secrecy, but I never expected to spend this much time with you. When I read the article and saw your picture, I thought you were just here to sign paperwork and you’d leave.”

“It’s odd, but I’m glad we’ve been able to spend so much time together.”

T.J. turned to Sydney and saw that captivating smile. Had Sydney been anyone else, he would have never thought twice about asking her out properly. Instead of worrying about Christmas Town or business, his focus would be on making her laugh or creating memories. It would’ve been on anything but business.

“Me too,” he replied.

“So, what about the house?” she pressed.

T.J. turned his focus back to the road. “I got in over my head. Honestly, I’m not sure if your resort is going to be good or bad for us, but I needed to pay off my business debt before a potential downturn.”

“Are you going to share what your business is, or will it be another secret until I do more digging?” T.J. only laughed. “That’s not an answer.”

“I bought Marty’s place.” Sydney smacked him on the shoulder. “Ouch!”

“Why would you keep that from me?” she yelled.

“I guess it’s because I want people to always see it as Marty’s place and not mine.”

“How do you do that?”

T.J. looked at Sydney and asked, “Do what?”

“You have this knack for making people feel bad instead of angry.”

T.J. put on his turn signal. “I got that from my grandma.” He made the turn into Christmas Town, but Sydney was none the wiser.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.